“The world has lost a lovely man, but Queensland has also lost its most talented and hardest working LGBT journalist,” broadcaster John Frame said of his late friend and colleague.

“Every article that Iain wrote was always honest; he was always trying to push to get the best he could out of politicians and the paper itself.”

Wally Cowin, founder and former publisher of Queensland Pride, recalls that Clacher took the publication, and queer journalism in Queensland, to a higher level.

“He brought the paper and the community together in ways that it hadn’t been together before, and was able to do things editorially that I couldn’t,” Cowin explained. “He was very much about fostering the community, and particularly, fostering new writers.”

Paul Martin, General Manager of the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC), the state’s peak queer health and wellbeing organisation, also praised Clacher’s community spirit.

“The LGBT media remains the most important way for QAHC to get messages out to the LGBT community, and Iain was very supportive of us,” he said.

“He went about the business of running the magazine in a way that wasn’t about self-promotion. It was about using Queensland Pride as a vehicle to support, promote and build the LGBT community in Queensland.”

But it isn’t only journalism that Clacher is remembered for. He was a founding member of lobby group Australian Marriage Equality (AME), a noted photographer (his works can be viewed on his Flickr page, here), and a keen musician. Frequenters of Brisbane’s live music venues will remember him playing piano and organ in garage bands such as Krank and Spank, Dementia 13 and Mona Lisa.

Equally significant was Clacher’s role as a lobbyist and activist.

Shayne Wilde worked closely with Iain during her tenure as co-convenor of the Queensland Association for Gay and Lesbian Rights. She says Clacher played a critical role in achieving most of the legislative changes that now exist in Queensland.

“He got involved after the Anti-Discrimination Act [was introduced in 1991], so from about 1993 or 1994,” Wilde recalled.
“Before then we only had two pieces of legislation through Parliament, but after that, from 94 onwards, we were changing amendments and acts, and all told we probably got over 150 changes to legislation through Parliament, and Iain played an absolutely crucial role in that … a critical role in lobbying not only politicians and parliaments, but also … private enterprises like MBF and Medicare to recognise same-sex families and stuff like that.”

Iain Clacher’s funeral will take place on Wednesday January 21 at 2pm at Mt Gravatt Crematorium, 582 Mains Road, Macgregor. Open Casket 2:00 – 2:15pm. Wake to follow at The Sportsman Hotel from 5pm. 

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